With the launch of Grand Theft Auto V and GTA Online coming very soon, Rockstar are starting to roll out some improvements to Social Club and the crews system we first saw implemented for Max Payne 3. Today we have a brand new hierarchies system, which Rockstar have added due to feedback from the community. This feature allows crew leaders to assign special ranks to members, giving them responsibilities and assuring loyalty and performance are rewarded.

Crew Leaders can assign special rank to any and all members (Crew members will otherwise all be defaulted to the designation of Muscle) across the following four tiers:

Commissioners: The Crew’s most trusted member(s) - that essential right-hand man or woman that the Leader relies on for Vice Presidential advisement and executive action. Commissioners have the power to manage and administrate all aspects of the Crew on behalf of the Leader, including the ability to promote members internally or invite new members in.

Lieutenants: Made members with specific privileges to keep the Crew in check and hand out promotions or demotions amongst sub-ordinate ranks. Crew Representatives and the mob of Muscle would be wise to keep their Lieutenants (and above) sweet.

Representatives: A tier of Crew members who have shown and proved their commitment to the clique - whether with ace performance in competitive modes, or just by rocking their Crew's emblem faithfully since day one. Crew Leaders can assign these special players as Representatives who will have basic permissions to aid recruitment efforts.

Muscle: The rank-and-file mob of Crew members who are happy to play their position of causing some havoc Online, doing their Crew's emblem justice and fighting for its good name. Muscle-level members may not have nor want any administrative power but they're often the heart and soul of what makes your Crew fearsome. Ambitious Muscle who are looking to prove themselves to the Crew Leader and rise up the ranks may even prove a threat to their Crew superiors, if any are deemed to be slacking on their responsibilities or performance.

Rockstar have provided many more details for this on the Newswire post. And remember, you can still join the official TGTAP crew, we'll be ready to see you in game on 1st October!

Rockstar have just announced that the official GTAV trailer, yes, the official one, will be coming this Thursday. We can safely assume this trailer will be the final one, the one which shows off the game in its completed form (as opposed to the previous ones being made during development). It's quite likely the one to be used on TV as well.

Rockstar haven't set a release time yet. We're going to go ahead and guess 10AM-12PM EST (3PM - 5PM GMT) as it normally is, but do keep checking back, we'll hopefully get an exact time confirmed soon.

Rockstar have released some more details and a couple of low-res screenshots from the Grand Theft Auto V Special and Collector editions.

The high-end Khamelion electric car. Available in Grand Theft Auto Online as part of the Collector's Edition.

Additional Weapons
Regardless of which version you've chosen, your local Ammu-Nation will always be stocked with a pair of special firearms at no additional cost that also have their own unique customization options, skins and attachments - the .50 Caliber Pistol and the Bullpup Shotgun. You'll also have access to the Hammer, which acts as a brutal melee weapon.

Bonus Outfits, Tattoos and More
When visiting any shops around Los Santos and Blaine County, Michael, Franklin and Trevor will receive a special 20% discount along with access to special items either in their personal wardrobes or from stores. Each character will receive 1 outfit each, one additional article of clothing (shirt, hoodie and jacket) each and a tattoo.

Michael, Franklin and Trevor each sporting some of the unique additions to their personal wardrobes.

Custom Characters for Grand Theft Auto Online (Collector's Edition only)
GTA Online introduces a new spin on traditional character creation with the hereditary-based creation system. Select your character’s appearance by choosing your parent’s heritage, then use the gene dominance meter to dial-in which parent your appearance favors more. Additionally, you'll customize your character's daily activities - everything from family time to illegal work and sports to couch potato hours all have an impact on your character’s appearance and skill set (and you can always rank up your skill stats more via gameplay). As part of the Collector’s Edition package, you'll get Niko Bellic, along with both Claude and Misty from Grand Theft Auto III to use as parent options within the character creation system.

Special Ability Boost
Michael, Franklin and Trevor each have a their own unique Special Ability, which can be activated once each of them fills up the Special Ability bar based on various actions. Michael is an expert marksman - his Special Ability slows down time in a gunfight allowing him to pick off his targets with greater ease. Franklin is a skilled driver with sharp reflexes - his Special Ability lets him slow down time while driving any road-based vehicle, allowing him to quickly navigate through traffic with ease and take corners at high speeds. Trevor is a drug-addled sociopath with a short fuse - his Special Ability sends him into a rage, causing double damage to enemies while only taking half as much damage himself when hit. With the boost that's included in both the Special and Collector's Editions, the Special Ability bar will generate 25% faster.

Stunt Plane Trials
Take in Los Santos and Blaine County at breakneck speeds in the Grand Theft Auto V Stunt Plane Trials. In five thrilling and unique challenges, you’ll zip through mountains, deserts, oceans, and cities as you navigate through a maze of checkpoints, each placed to push your Stunt Plane to the limit. Completing each Trial will improve the piloting skill of your character. Compare your times with friends and vie for the top spot on the leaderboard.

Hit the streets of Los Santos with the CarbonRS sports bike.

Unique Vehicles and Garage Property (Collector's Edition only)
The Collector's Edition also features an exclusive garage to store custom vehicles, that comes stocked with the CarbonRS sports bike and the Hotknife - an open frame 1930’s style hotrod. In Grand Theft Auto Online your garage and the high-end Khamelion electric car, which is specific to GTA Online, are both purchased through in-game websites accessed through your Online character’s cell phone.

Commenting on yesterday's Newswire post, Rockstar have confirmed that Grand Theft Auto V has now gone gold! This means the game is now officially final, and on track for its September 17th release in just over 3 weeks time.

In an earlier statement that Rockstar also linked to, Sony took the blame and apologised to the fans and to Rockstar for the leak of certain pre-load assets yesterday, which led to some unlucky gamers getting spoiled. Thankfully the leaks were mainly limited to audio snippets rather than the entire game, although a full radio station song listing was also made available. Sony also confirmed that they have since removed the pre-load from the EU PlayStation Store, but did not give a date for when it would be made available again to buyers legitimately wanting to get the game downloaded in time for release.

Exclusive Country Clubs
A lush golf course in the desert? Is it a mirage? No, it's a byproduct of sensible water usage so that the well-heeled can hit the links at the exclusive Los Santos Country Club. Come rub shoulders and tee off with the privileged and pompous.

Local Artisans
Visit one of our local tattoo parlors like Ink Inc or Blazing Tattoo and let one of the talented and highly-trained artists help you make a decision that will last forever.

Serenity & Wellness
Whether it’s the Downward Dog pose or the more advanced Dropping Fire Log, there are many fulfilling and compromising positions you can contort yourself into with the help of an expert like Master Private Yoga Instructor, Fabien LaRouche.

In addition, a couple of new artworks were added, one feature the 'Cut Here' pose of Trevor, the other being the official GTA Online art. And finally, there are 8 new screenshots. Check them out below.

Rockstar are teaming up with West Coast Customs (they do MTV's Pimp My Ride) to create a "one-of-a-kind production" of a Banshee Twin Turbo GT. Rockstar say to stay tuned for your chance to nick it - presumably this will be some kind of competition, and Rockstar aren't actually advocating we all head off to the West Coast and attempt to steal it. That would be silly and slightly illegal, so don't do that.

That's pretty much all that has been said for now, but it's worth noting that the Banshee (at least since GTA IV) has been based off the Dodge Viper, so we can assume it will be modified from that (screenshot and some renders).

Are you a PlayStation 3 owner in North America or Latin America? If so, good news, Rockstar have just announced that you can now pre-order the digital release version of GTA V. The game will be available to download on day 1 and you'll get the Atomic Blimp pre-order bonus just like those who have ordered the boxed disc copy. And those of you who are in Europe, don't worry, you'll be able to pre-order too, you'll just have to wait until Friday.

There are also some additional benefits to pre-ordering that Rockstar describe below.

As an added bonus, Day 1 Digital pre-orders will also receive an exclusive PS3 theme along with 75% off on any Rockstar full game title on PSN* (to help tide you over these last few weeks before GTAV hits on September 17th). You can pre-order the Day 1 Digital version by going to the New on PS3: PSN Pre-Orders section of the PlayStation Store.

"What about us Xbox 360 owners?" you cry. Well, Rockstar explain why you can't have nice things, and you can blame Microsoft:

the Xbox 360 Games on Demand service does not offer the ability to pre-order games or make them available on launch day. That being said, we will be making GTAV available via Games on Demand as soon as it's technically feasible and permitted by Microsoft.

X360A, source of pretty much every game's achievements leaks ever, has once again given us the goods with the full list of Grand Theft Auto V achievements, which you can go ahead and read on their site if you don't mind being spoiled a little. There are a total of 49 achievements, 11 of which are secret. Of course we can't confirm these to be 100% true yet, but the fact they have the full list complete with images and descriptions suggest they are indeed hidden away on xbox.com somewhere. We think it would be far too much effort for someone to fake all that for the sake of extra pageviews, especially as we're now only a month away from release, chances are these would be revealed in the next couple of weeks anyway.

There are a few interesting achievements on the list to do with things we've heard absolutely nothing about. Stop reading this post right now if you don't want to read some spoilers...

Spoilers Ahead

You've been warned...

Find and collect all spaceship parts - Is it too farfetched to believe we'll be able to fly a spaceship? Who knows, this is Rockstar we're talking about.

Solve the mystery of Leonora Johnson - A new name to us, no doubt a lot of you will now try to find a way to link this with CJ's family from San Andreas. Worth noting that GTAV is not in the same universe as San Andreas and no major characters make a return - but that's not to say there won't be a few homages to previous games and/or characters.

Nuclear waste means there's a nuclear power plant in the game - that should be interesting.

Rampages are back

Multiplayer character levels go up to 100

There's a rally mode online and you can be the driver or co-driver.

How well you complete each mission will determine if you get a gold medal or (presumably) bronze or silver if you don't do so well

GTA Online will be completely free and will come with GTAV, but won't launch until 1st October.

There will be a countdown timer in game to the online launch

GTA Online begins with you arriving with no money at all, and you must first complete a few missions to get a feel for the game

Reputation Points (RP) will be awarded for completing missions, as you progress through the game you will meet new characters and unlock more missions and rewards etc.

There's a lot of property you can buy, at varying prices. You can even use the CCTV to spy on people.

You can take out insurance on your vehicles and get a replacement if it gets destroyed.

You can hire mechanic to fix all your vehicles automatically.

You can hire a private security firm to call in an air strike

Your customised vehicles show up as a marker on the map, and will get impounded if you leave them for too long. But you can pay to retrieve them.

You will need to deposit your money at the bank as often as possible, because if another player kills you he can steal your wallet.

You can call up a friend to hide your blip on the map to make it more difficult for other players to find you

Passengers can change the radio station in vehicles

You will have contacts that can provide various services, such as hiding you from the map as mentioned above, or setting a bounty on another player.

Some vehicle customisation shops might not be willing to change your license plates or respray your car, and instead you'll get a wanted level.

Weasel News will report on players who have wanted levels

Apartments have planning rooms for organising heists

When in a heist, you can invite your friends who will be instantly teleported to your location

You can share cash, weapons, ammo among your team

Your ranking in GTA Online will be based off your shooting, driving, flying and parachuting skills

There's a "passive mode" which allows you to free roam and not be killed by anyone, in turn, you can also not kill other players

Bad behaviour, such as blowing up another player, will cause you to get a "Bad Sport" stat. Persistent bad behaviour will result in punishment

Matchmaking system is based off ranking, prioritising the ranks of your friends, crew members, and strangers.

The game automatically tracks who your rivals are, and will notify you if they come online so you can get revenge.

When using a headset, if you speak, your character will broadly lip-sync.

In addition, if you rob stores, your crew members will stuff money into bags more quickly if they hear urgency in your voice.

The Content Creator allows players to create and share their own missions and activities via the Social Club. Other players can attempt to beat your targets and rate your mission. You'll be able to follow other creators and get a feed of missions they create

A Twitter-like "Feed" will be available to relay all your emails, texts and messages from Social Club.

The game world will constantly grow and change as new content is added by Rockstar, and at some point GTA Online will head into new locations.

Access to Grand Theft Auto Online is free with every retail copy of Grand Theft Auto V and launches on October 1st.

Rockstar's Own Words:

Grand Theft Auto Online is a dynamic and persistent online world for 16 players that begins by sharing gameplay features, geography and mechanics with Grand Theft Auto V, but will continue to expand and evolve after its launch with new content created by Rockstar Games and the Grand Theft Auto community. Grand Theft Auto Online takes the fundamental Grand Theft Auto concepts of freedom, ambient activity and mission-based gameplay and makes them available to multiple players in an incredibly detailed and responsive online world.

In Grand Theft Auto Online, players have the freedom to explore alone or with friends, work cooperatively to complete missions, band together to participate in activities and ambient events, or compete in traditional game modes with the entire community, all with the personality and refined mechanics of Grand Theft Auto V.

Players can invest in their character through customizing their appearance, improving their stats, owning customized vehicles, purchasing personal property, and taking part in missions, jobs and activities to earn reputation and cash to open up new opportunities to rise through the criminal ranks. The world of Grand Theft Auto Online will constantly grow and change as new content is added, creating the first ever persistent and dynamic Grand Theft Auto game world.

Access to Grand Theft Auto Online is free with every retail copy of Grand Theft Auto V and launches on October 1st.

BuzzFeed have caught an exclusive interview with Rockstar North's Art Director, Aaron Garbut. Aaron is the man responsible for how GTA (since GTA III) looks and feels - so he's a pretty important bloke. Really interesting read which includes 5 brand new screenshots which we'll hopefully get higher res versions of later! Some choice quotes are below.

In comparison to GTA IV:

We used to call Liberty City a living, breathing world, but this is way beyond anything we've done before.

On the size and detail of the game:

It’s levels of magnitude above Grand Theft Auto IV in terms of what we’ve done on the environment side. I know there are bigger games out there geographically, but I don’t think there are in terms of content. I want to stress that not only is this world huge but it’s absolutely handcrafted. Every little bit of this world has had a large number of extremely talented artists pore over it. There’s always something to discover, something weird or interesting to see or interact with. It’s absolutely not a massive, empty world. We’ve considered the placement of every tree. We’ve simply not copied buildings around the map or procedurally generated the terrain to pad it out. It’s all handcrafted, all unique, and we’ve gone over it all again and again and again to make sure there’s enough layering of detail that I don’t think many people will ever see everything we’ve put into the world. That in itself, though, means that most people will have different experiences.

Rockstar have just pushed a major update to the official GTAV website. You can now check out various aspects of Los Santos and Blaine County in an interactive travelogue. Additionally, there's also a bunch of new screens and artwork!

Unfortunately, it seems the website is getting absolutely hammered right now, so we'll have the new screens and stuff up here when possible. Until then, you can read the descriptions provided by Rockstar.

* Fast Cars at Your Fingertips: If you are ready to hit the highway in a sleek sports car or go off-roading in Blaine County in an SUV, avoid pushy salesmen and select from a stunning array of vehicular options online.

* Thriving Economy & Commerce: Every day the stock exchange is minting millionaires who know how to play the market. Take your gains and invest in the volatile Los Santos commercial real estate market. To go big in this town, you just might need to buy a building.

* Affordable Healthcare: Thanks to recent legislation, if you receive something as harmless as a scratch or as serious as a bullet wound, any of our state certified medical centers will patch you up and make sure the healthy bill is picked up by taxpayers.

* Vehicular Customization Shops: Residents of Los Santos take great pride in their cars. They spend the majority of the day in them. When you're ready to trick out your ride, visit LS Customs, because nothing says class like neon.

* Shopping & Glamour: Tourists come from far and wide for the experience of Los Santos shopping. From the well-tailored jet-setter couture in the high-street shops of Rockford Hills to the disheveled and disaffected drug addict hipster vibe in Hawick, there's a wide array of fashionable retail options for you.

* Accessible Air Travel: A wide range of aircraft are available for your travel and aerial transport needs. Log onto ElitasTravel.com and purchase luxury aircraft from the Luxor and Shamal jetliners to high-end helicopters and more.

* Leadership You Can Trust: You're arriving at quite an exciting time as our area is in the midst of the current gubernatorial race with Sue Murry running against conservative challenger and famous star of screen and TV, Jock Cranley.

* Beaches & Watersports: Our coastal areas and beautiful lakes and rivers are a dream come true for those who crave aquatic adventure.

* The Great Outdoors: Hunters and adventurers can find great sporting challenges across our vast Blaine County countryside. Bring a rifle to hunt for dangerous game, hike to the peak of the majestic Mount Chiliad, or hire a plane and parachute from on high.

* Friendly Neighbors: The streets are alive with all kinds of characters who coordinate clothing colors and enjoy leisurely pursuits such as territory clashes and pharmaceutical commerce. Stop and chat with a member of The Epsilon Program for some enlightenment, or head to Blaine County, where they always extend a helping hand to outsiders.